The Only Climate Change Threat to Companies – Comes from Government

Environmentalists have long been called “watermelons” – green on the outside, red on the in. Red – as in Communist. Earth Day – also happens to be Soviet Communist Vladimir Lenin’s birthday. A coincidence, surely.

Environmentalism has always been about ending capitalism. Exaggeration?

Not so much. But they’re better-than-average messengers of their terrible message, so they are always looking for variations on their theme. Even if consecutive variations – are completely contradictory. Flash back to the 1970s, and you get this:

The ultimate goal remains the same – to end capitalism. And the fuel of capitalism – is oil. Gut the oil industry – and you undermine the entire capitalist system. And they are always looking for new and inventive ways to do it. To wit:

The Dangerous Ideological Roots of Climate Disclosure: “Having failed in their attempt to paint energy companies with the same brush as tobacco companies, environmental activists have switched tactics and are now accusing publicly traded oil and gas corporations of hiding the true costs of climate change to their businesses. The effort threatens to change the current focus of financial reporting—which is to provide salient information to investors—and instead serve the policy agenda of liberal activists.”

“It’s no surprise that global-warming activists are turning to financial disclosure as a political tool. Labor unions and environmentalists have become adept at using shareholder leverage to embarrass corporate managements, forcing them to spend time and money on compliance and defense, and steering them toward the activists’ social and political goals. However, attempting to subvert reporting requirements goes well beyond what these entities have attempted.”

“They have enlisted New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman to lead the cause. Earlier this year, he announced that he is looking at whether Exxon Mobil ignores the true risk of global warming in evaluating its energy reserves. If global warming accelerates, Schneiderman’s logic goes, then Exxon would be stuck with fossil fuel reserves rendered worthless by future regulations or a concomitant reduced demand for oil.”

“In 2010 the SEC issued an interpretive guidance document to remind companies to disclose business risks created by climate change….(T)he SEC wanted companies also to disclose the potential impact of legislation, regulations, and international accords related to climate change on their businesses, as well as any negative effects on the production process or consumer preferences.”

The multitudinous layers of government are demanding companies accurately project the cost of prospective, as-yet-non-existent taxes, laws and regulations – that the multitudinous layers of government might at some point in the future impose.

These are petroleum businessmen – not regulatory soothsayers. There’s only one way for them to know how and how much governments will damage them in the future. That is for governments to pledge to not damage them in the future.

But they are thoroughly ensconced here in Reality – so I’m sure they aren’t halting respiratory activity in the waiting for that.